This. My public school history curriculum always started in 1620 and ended in 1945. As far as school was concerned, nothing important happened in the world before or after those years.
@@jackvotes24 not in the US, we don't. As far as every US history class I had in school was concerned, history ended in 1945. How can we expect young adults of today to understand events that happened 30, 40, 50 years before they were born if education omits them?
It's not about forgetting. It has been a complete success! Just like Vietnam! …for the weapons industry. All those rifles, armored vehicles and helicopters need conflict zones.
This stupid sentence is nothing but a ridiculous simplification of US inner politics, foreign politics, NATO strategy, security interests and geopolitical interests. Monetary interests of the arms industry is a factor - but definitely not the only factor, and not even the dominant factor. US-NATO thought, that they could serve their security interest best, if they could i) short term, take out the terrorist infrastructure backed by the Taliban and ii) long-term, if Afghanistan became an ally, who at least to an extend shared some western values. The second part of the strategy failed. But "follow the money" explains close to nothing of what took place over the last 20 years in Afghanistan.
@@willyjohnsons_member6019 It explains everything. That is the beauty of it. As the sole super power, which is derived from it's vast wealth, the US is the only country capable of sustaining a 20 year war. The idea that the US could nation build was a folly. It has never worked in the past and it will never work in the future. Can you rationalize out why to spend the money? Of course you can and you did a fine job, but if the money was not there to spend, Afghanistan would never have happened. The US spent $250 million a day for 20 years and look what it got them. The Establishment was feeding at the trough. They extended the war for as long as they could, justifying the spending by lying to the public. This war could have ended 10-15 years ago.
@@paulmoulton7248 If the US and NATO would have agreed to only take out Afghanistan as a terrorist hub: yes, they could have ended the war in 2002/2003. But keep in mind, that after the Iraq campaign in the 90's and the "undercover" Afghanistan engagement of the US in the 80's it was perceived to have been a mistake to not engage long-term in Nation building. "Left them in the dirt" was the catch phrase. Considering these fairly recent (from a 2003 perspective) wars, I would conclude that there were definitely other factors, political factors, driving the motivation to an extended campaign.
half the discretionary federal budget goes to the military industrial complex. its been like that for 20 years. there is no political appetite for fixing domestic issues. we need to stop the lobbyists from enabling the grift.
Yes, and end Citizens United. Reform elections. Health care. Entitlements. Infastructure failing and I personally think we need a 4th branch of govt of rotating non elected, everyday citizens who have power over judicial and legislative branch. Like Plebians from Rome. Like jury duty. Among many other things. Country is heading for Civil War at this rate
As if Americans are experts in. Nation building. At least for the past 40 years the party of Reagan, now The GQP, has done nothing else than nation destroying!
@@AnnaPilgrim hahaha you must be forgetting the debacle of nation building by every democratic president since JFK. Carter’s nation building was disastrous in the Middle East. Clinton’s was horrific in Africa, Middle East and Asia. Obama’s was atrocious in North Africa and the Middle East and he exacerbated all of the conflicts that were apparently so awful during the Bush years. You’re a hypocrite and you’re too pathetic to take stock of yourself. Biden never wanted to withdraw. He hated Trump’s deal and wanted to cancel it. That’s why he fucked it up
What do you mean? We did it. They were having elections. They had a judicial system. All it took to maintain was a skeleton force of a few thousand men and a few hundred mechanics. It was over. Zero combat deaths in a year and a half...
watching the latest Afghanistan covered reminds me of the live Oliver North congressional hearings. It is a pattern America needs to learn from and stop repeating.
@@brendonaldson8056 War, and militarism in general, are essential in keeping the system of economic injustice functioning for the benefit of an ever-shrinking few. And all the while environmental and possibly nuclear catastrophe loom. But, hey! An LGBT woman gets to perform with another woman on "Dancing with the Stars". Now THAT'S progress!
It will never stop. Rich people need a reason to cull the herd of poor strong men. If they don't, the poor men eventually take up carpentry and French music.
It will absolutely never change. Why? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Ron Paul predicted exactly what was going to happen, when he was a Congressman, more than ten years ago. And almost everybody called him crazy. Look it up.
@@niveinratnayake668 you're deflecting, a typical move by someone in the tank for one side. Obama had 8 years to end it and get some courage. Nope. To much to ask apparently. Team bush bears the most responsibility.
You can play the blame game til the cows come home. Doesn’t change the fact that factions within the Pentagon and covert agencies do things to enrich themselves regardless of objectives.
Congress needs to claw back its war powers and there needs to be better oversight. It’s obvious the public was being lied to about Afghanistan progress the past 20 years.
The First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars both ended badly for Great Britain in the nineteenth century and the Soviet- Afghan war disastrously for the Soviet Union in the twentieth century…but for the U.S. in the twenty first century ‘It must be different!’ Why must that be? The impossibility of winning, and the impossibility of acknowledging we couldn’t win followed the same pattern as Great Britain and the Soviet Union. This can never be acknowledged by current political class critics after twenty years of lies. It can’t be said by the diplomats like Wolfowitz and Rice, and certainly not by the wave of retired generals on news programs who now hold boutique positions at military contract firms, or are principals in their own contract companies, benefiting from keeping the U.S. in Afghanistan. It has ended like this because it is the only way it could have, and if we don’t see the end as inextricably bound to the last twenty years of lies and systemic failure of the political class, and the military-industrial complex, we are doomed to listen to them again and to repeat the same pattern of failure at the cost of lives, limbs, and wealth.
This will never end so long as the military armaments industry has lobbyists working congress. This is not a party issue either - both sides sadly use the national coffers to enrich themselves.
There was no clear plan to "stabilize" Afghanistan, especially after most military resources went to Iraq. Our mission to take over provinces were successful, but as soon as we moved out the enemy moved right back in. Same deal in Iraq. Ramadi is a great example.
Yeah those weapons of mass destruction no one ever found.Cheney who was CEO of Haliburton the defense contractor got the no bid contract on Iraqi oil.The oil revenues would pay for the war was a lie from Rumsfeld
There never was a clear plan. The 4 Presidents lied to themselves and the Pentagon was off in the woods looking for mushrooms. Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires for a reason. No one read Sun Tzu, no one can conquer those mountains. Joe stopped the mistake,
@@Hyperpandas My original post was writ as "As per"' it did not attribute the quote to Winnie, he did use it in his writings.I bow to your superior erudition. I have no desire to split hairs with you.
Wouldn’t matter either way. Japan is the proper template for how things should have went down. We nuked them twice, deposed their emperor and gave them an American constitution. Now Japan is the most modern country in Asia. No trace of fascism or militarism to be seen. Turns out those nukes ended up doing them some good. That’s the perfect example of how it should be done.
@@mosesking2923 No trace of fascism to be seen? Wrong. Japan has their hard core "nationalists" who defend their nation's WW2 war crimes against the Allies and Asian women that were forced into sexual slavery they called "Comfort Women".
@@danporath536 you don't think there were opposition parties just before Japanese military under 'rule' of emporer took total control? Please tell me you can see the uni party and big tech forging a consensus as we text?
@@rudyburnias3915 Making all-encompassing comparisons of contemporary events to past events is only useful in some ways. The differences tend to outweigh the similarities. The only way history repeats itself is through human nature.
@@JayDeeinFL that's nonsense. We never set Marines up to guard crops, or stayed in an area long enough to do so. Lives aren't being risked for something so irrelevant to the mission on the ground. We'd roll in take care of business then leave. If command had intel that those farmers were supplying Tali then sometimes we'd destroy the crops. Generally we'd leave the fields and the farmers alone. Nobody cared to mess with a civilians way of life if they weren't involved with the enemy. I can't speak for every unit experience, of course.
@@JayDeeinFL like l said, l can't speak for every unit. If that pog outfit was tasked to help farmers security then that's nothing short of what we called CTN civilian tact and inclusion. I've seen plenty of crops burned but never one guarded. Have a good one.
Still can‘t remember why exactly US military was send to Afghanistan except assuming Bin Laden was hiding there. And then it showed he was not there but in Pakistan.
The issue is Biden’s incompetence. Failing to properly evacuate our troops and letting terrorists get millions of dollars worth of our own equipment. Now he has the blood of 12 men on his hands.....
I remember seeing a female solider on the news just before the country went into Afghanistan. They were in Iraq. The reporter was asking soldiers how they felt about it. The woman solider was pissed off to say the least. She was adamant that we didn’t need to go there.
If people want to stop it all they have to do is stop signing up for the armed services. Politicians don’t have the balls to reinstate the draft for something like Afghanistan or Iraq. Political suicide.
But human rights etc was never the reason they were there. It was just an excuse to nationbuild, spend trillions on military contractors, get that Opium rolling again and god knows what else.
@@CptApplestrudl The vested interests and certain national agencies wanted the military spending, the opium rolling, etc., but that's not the reason we were there. Nationbuilding was always a happy side effect, and became a reason to top bods who forgot or never understood why we were there. Nationbuilding there was/is a fragile thing and near completely dependent on a strong, stable, humanitarian background which did not exist intrinsically in the area in any serious way. The (THE) reason we were there and should still be there, is to disable future 9/11's; to maintain a small but sufficient force there to deny Al Quaida and ISIS-K, etc (and the Taliban for that matter) access to their terrorist resources, as well as providing us with a strategic base close to any emergent needs. The 20 year presence has made actually really good humanitarian gains there against phenomenal opposition and inertial resistance from what amounts to multiple antagonistic tribes shoved together under one (corrupt) government. Without long-term care and development, this aspect will always fall apart just like Yugoslavia after Tito's death, or Austria-Hungary. Basically why we need to be there was not being reminded to the US people, and a whole generation has grown up clueless about it, in their minds equating it with the latter years of Vietnam, of course thus spurring the desire to abandon Afghanistan.
@@fuckamericanidiot Fine then, how about this string of argument then: If we cared about women's rights etc how about we start putting up pressure on our "allies" like Saudi arabia?
We do teach History in school, Bill, the kids are too busy playing with their cell phones to pay attention or they're dozing off. Not all of them, but the majority. Take their phones away for 1 hour and it becomes "an assault on their freedom". What a joke school is in America.
And they should be grateful, the US isn't even 250 years old. No Antiquity, no Middle Ages, Renaissance etc... I bet most kids in the EU would like to only study 250 years worth of history.
@@remembertoloveyourselftoda4015I left the US at 12 yrs old, but at least up to that point, yes only US American history was studied. I went back to the US for my first college year, and all students had the choice between World History and US History class. There weren't 10 students in the World History class. When I asked around, students told me they had only studied US History and it would be easier to get good grades rather than learn World History (which was basically western history from the Enlightenment up to contemporary history, not that far away in time). Finally, to give you an idea of the level of how history can be taught in the US, when I left at the 6th grade (beginning of Middle School), the test questions were given the day before the test, had to be memorised and answered correctly the following day with a MCQ. Leaving the US for the EU, I found out how low the standards of public education in the US are and had to catch up to a lot. It seems logic that living in a specific country, one would mainly learn the history of said country. Though, I do wonder if there shouldn't be an exception when the country has existed less than 250 years, no matter how many wars it has participated in.
@@MrAronymous Other countries don't tolerate the BS that American public schools do. I went to private and public schools (in Oregon) where class clowns and disruptive kids are NOT tolerated in private schools. We continue to graduate public high school kids who can barely read and write. There's no need for kids to have cell phones while in class, they can be checked in at the door, like a coat or hat in a nightclub. Our history books are white-washed, always have been.
Do you have any idea how much money the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will have cost the US when it's all over? Multiple trillions...and at home politicians tell you how you can never afford social security, welfare, free healthcare etc. "How are you gonna pay for it?"
"These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime.” President George W. Bush explaining the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan This was accomplished by 2003, if not before.
If you ask people from Iraq, I guess they would say the war not only killed many of their familymembers, but also destroyed the society. However, as always, a small group of people are happy and rich due to the war.
@@ellengran6814 - Having lived in the Middle East, I've spoken to some people from Iraq. Most of those I spoke to concluded that, on the whole, they were glad of the American invasion and the deposing of Saddam Hussein. They believe that their nation is in a better place than before the US invasion. So the world isn't as black and white as you seem to suggest.
@@wiseonwords In the 1980s , Iraq was a middle-income and rapidly developing country. Today more then 4 million iraqis are in need of humanitarian help, millions have water-supple difficulties and the healthcare system still suffers compared to before the war. However, I agree, it all depends on who you ask.
I don't think it even matters at this point, who gets what. I agree with leaving that place, mostly because I spent a lot of time in that hell hole, starting in the early 2002, and I can easily say the minerals are not worth the cost.
Every single state and defense department official from all four presidencies that are responsible for keeping us in this war shouldn't just be fired. They should be put in jail for the rest of their lives! Americans should be outraged now just as they were about Vietnam!
I've attempted to delete this and can't. My feelings about this I'm putting on readers is about as bad as the doctor did to me. I just get tired of the same thing happing. I watched the fall of Saigon on tv.
We do teach history history in school, however, so much of the year is committed to standardized testing that most classes do not get to Vietnam and beyond.
Nobody is forgetting anything. It's all done for profit gains. They know what they're doing, in the long run, making money. They just don't know exactly how they're gonna get there.
The difference between Europe after WWII and Afghanistan is that Europe was mostly a white Christian continent. So they shared similar values to the US, and wanted to get all that back. Afghanistan is not only a different religion and culture, but they had no history of democracy or civil order to fall back on. No institutional memory. We would've needed to stay in Afghanistan another 20 years to get 2 full generations of people who grew up under more orderly and prosperous circumstances.
It's amazing to listen to this from Bill Maher then listen to his recent take on how Americans shouldn't be at all upset about Afghanistan and should shut up because we have it better than them. His take that we are too 'woke' and that's the issue. Talk about repeating mistakes, he's already moved on to 'Don't criticize America'.
It doesn’t seem to matter, people involved made out like bandits and there is nothing we will do about it, just like Vietnam. And I’m sure the next time it happens, it will be the same thing again. And all we do, is talk and complain about it. But it doesn’t seem to change anything. Politicians and all involved need to be accountable some how.
@@vivekjain9340 Everyone knows about the CIA, but there is way more money involved that is going somewhere. my theory is the crowns. When Juan Carlos came back to power, the cocaine money went to Spain. Britain has always profited off opium. I would say the CIA uses 5 to 10 % of the opium profits. There is billions. And there is a level above the CIA for sure geopolitically speaking. Popes and Crowns
Sometimes funny is wrong. I will always remember "Socrates is like a beautiful bird whose tweets mean nothing at all" as sort-of one of the shortest-sighted jokes in all history.
the big question is not why are we in Afghanistan. That was the question 19 years ago. The BIG question is how we train soldiers for 20 years and these same soldiers are defeated in less than 72 hours.
I will never forget the picture of the last helicopter taking off from the roof of the US Embassy in Siagon. Brace yourself America, the repeat is coming to your TV in a few days.
You cut out the part seconds earlier which was " the Taliban says that women will have all rights within the limits of Islam, which is a great way of saying, none !" Maher went on to say he never understood why there was not a greater outcry against this. perhaps you can explain since you edited this out.
For the 20 years some1 in America has controlled the poppy/heroin trade of Afghanistan..the Taliban had ended it.. that angle has to be considered with the real reasons we invaded, then stayed..along with this being a military complex cash cow
@@Illlium mythology as the nation's history is taught in every nation because evil is what others do. The indigenous tribes in North America were frequently resolve to murder Caucasians. The manifest destiny people only massacred the tribes because the tribes were so evil.
@@btbingo The advantage of real mythologies is that they don't whitewash history, but good to know American mythology is as messed up as the country itself.
If you’ve never been in the military like me who briefed the CDR and his staff with daily briefings (this is before the fall of the Berlin Wall), then you’ll never comprehend this, but every Master Sergeant/Colonel/General I spoke to all said the same thing to me (I’m paraphrasing)……”war is about money being made for the US, not necessarily winning it. Winning a war is the ultimate prize.” Aside from WWII, I’d say we’ve pretty much sucked at winning wars!
*With The Kinds Of Money We've Spent In Wars, We Could Guarantee Senior Citizens $5000 Monthly In Retirement.That Money Would Solve At Lot Of Their Problems. Prescription Drugs Etcetera*
4,000 military personnel in Bahrain 28,000 military personnel in South Korea 53,000 military personnel in Japan 64,000 military personnel in Europe 2,500 military personnel in Afghanistan protecting 19,000,000 women and young girls
Ike left office in 1961 warning the US of the overwhelming power the US Military Complex was nurturing in the US Congress to get more and more appropriated tax dollars flowing into the coffers of R&D firms and weapons manufactures. Today we have private firms doing almost all of the support services for troops as contractors making huge profits for work we used to use Army personnel for. The idea that for-profit companies will do better is ridiculous. Companies work to cut costs in every way possible to maximize their profit. That cost-cutting often leads to lower standards because the cheapest suppliers are hardly ever the highest quality.
This perpetual war has always been about meta data collection. Everything leads to meta data collection. Eventually, we'll all have a social credit score.
The reality though, is that now Vietnam is a pretty stable and friendly country where Americans and other Westerners are welcome and don't have to worry too much about getting beheaded for jaywalking. Hard to see Afghanistan in the same way down the road. Yes, it sucks.
We went there for the same reason the Ruskies went there. Because it is a perfect strategic position to keep a thumb over the entire Middle East. Or would be, if anyone could ever actually control it.
Politically, I disagree with about 97% of what Maher believes. But I still look forward to watching his show. Why? Because the man says what he actually thinks. And he has INTEGRITY! Something the professional liars in Washington DC got rid of a long time ago.
“We should teach History in schools!” 👏
This. My public school history curriculum always started in 1620 and ended in 1945. As far as school was concerned, nothing important happened in the world before or after those years.
unfortunately, 95% of the people who want to teach history come at it with an agenda. It's not the solution.
@@soulscanner66 I agree
We do.
@@jackvotes24 not in the US, we don't. As far as every US history class I had in school was concerned, history ended in 1945. How can we expect young adults of today to understand events that happened 30, 40, 50 years before they were born if education omits them?
It's not about forgetting. It has been a complete success! Just like Vietnam!
…for the weapons industry.
All those rifles, armored vehicles and helicopters need conflict zones.
We swear, the next Blackhawk is for defense and prosperity, this time for real guys!
@Rickie Matthews right!
Biden, Hillary, Obama, Oprah and the reptile people!!!
Follow the money. That is how you explain 20 years and $2+ trillion.
Bingo!
This stupid sentence is nothing but a ridiculous simplification of US inner politics, foreign politics, NATO strategy, security interests and geopolitical interests. Monetary interests of the arms industry is a factor - but definitely not the only factor, and not even the dominant factor. US-NATO thought, that they could serve their security interest best, if they could i) short term, take out the terrorist infrastructure backed by the Taliban and ii) long-term, if Afghanistan became an ally, who at least to an extend shared some western values. The second part of the strategy failed. But "follow the money" explains close to nothing of what took place over the last 20 years in Afghanistan.
@@willyjohnsons_member6019 It explains everything. That is the beauty of it. As the sole super power, which is derived from it's vast wealth, the US is the only country capable of sustaining a 20 year war.
The idea that the US could nation build was a folly. It has never worked in the past and it will never work in the future.
Can you rationalize out why to spend the money? Of course you can and you did a fine job, but if the money was not there to spend, Afghanistan would never have happened.
The US spent $250 million a day for 20 years and look what it got them.
The Establishment was feeding at the trough. They extended the war for as long as they could, justifying the spending by lying to the public. This war could have ended 10-15 years ago.
@@paulmoulton7248 If the US and NATO would have agreed to only take out Afghanistan as a terrorist hub: yes, they could have ended the war in 2002/2003. But keep in mind, that after the Iraq campaign in the 90's and the "undercover" Afghanistan engagement of the US in the 80's it was perceived to have been a mistake to not engage long-term in Nation building. "Left them in the dirt" was the catch phrase. Considering these fairly recent (from a 2003 perspective) wars, I would conclude that there were definitely other factors, political factors, driving the motivation to an extended campaign.
Tip of the iceberg, mate. All our wars involve plunder and theft.
This is actually the best segment i've seen Bill Maher do in a long time.
half the discretionary federal budget goes to the military industrial complex. its been like that for 20 years. there is no political appetite for fixing domestic issues. we need to stop the lobbyists from enabling the grift.
Get rid of Citizens United!
Yes, and end Citizens United. Reform elections. Health care. Entitlements. Infastructure failing and I personally think we need a 4th branch of govt of rotating non elected, everyday citizens who have power over judicial and legislative branch. Like Plebians from Rome. Like jury duty. Among many other things. Country is heading for Civil War at this rate
But we can't afford to resolve domestic issues, just ask Mitch McConnell.
20 wtf its more like 40 years
Our government spends 50 percent of our gdp. The military is 4 percent. Do the math, for once.
From a history teacher...thank you Bill.
Maybe you would know that the vietnam war is not analogous to Afghanistan then.
History hasn’t been written yet. These are opinions.
We can’t “nation build” a country in middle of a two decade civil war.
As if Americans are experts in. Nation building. At least for the past 40 years the party of Reagan, now The GQP, has done nothing else than nation destroying!
The government that was being propped up was way to corrupt to achieve anything productive.
@@AnnaPilgrim You mean like Obama did in Libya and Syria and JFK did in Vietnam?
@@AnnaPilgrim hahaha you must be forgetting the debacle of nation building by every democratic president since JFK. Carter’s nation building was disastrous in the Middle East. Clinton’s was horrific in Africa, Middle East and Asia. Obama’s was atrocious in North Africa and the Middle East and he exacerbated all of the conflicts that were apparently so awful during the Bush years. You’re a hypocrite and you’re too pathetic to take stock of yourself. Biden never wanted to withdraw. He hated Trump’s deal and wanted to cancel it. That’s why he fucked it up
What do you mean? We did it. They were having elections. They had a judicial system. All it took to maintain was a skeleton force of a few thousand men and a few hundred mechanics. It was over. Zero combat deaths in a year and a half...
And un like medicare for all or free comunity college nobody asked how are we gonna pay for it?
watching the latest Afghanistan covered reminds me of the live Oliver North congressional hearings. It is a pattern America needs to learn from and stop repeating.
👍🏾
America learn this lesson? Fat chance. War is money.
@@brendonaldson8056 War, and militarism in general, are essential in keeping the system of economic injustice functioning for the benefit of an ever-shrinking few. And all the while environmental and possibly nuclear catastrophe loom. But, hey! An LGBT woman gets to perform with another woman on "Dancing with the Stars". Now THAT'S progress!
It will never stop. Rich people need a reason to cull the herd of poor strong men. If they don't, the poor men eventually take up carpentry and French music.
It will absolutely never change. Why? $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Ron Paul predicted exactly what was going to happen, when he was a Congressman, more than ten years ago. And almost everybody called him crazy. Look it up.
Maher was right to throw shade at Obama...he gets a LOT of blame for having kept this Afghanistan mess alive.
well he did kill osama, I blame him and Trump.
The counter is how do you get out of Afghanistan without Taliban taking over without a surge to build up Afghanistan and reduce Taliban's strength.
@@niveinratnayake668 you're deflecting, a typical move by someone in the tank for one side. Obama had 8 years to end it and get some courage. Nope. To much to ask apparently. Team bush bears the most responsibility.
@@bassandtrebleclef well trump should've done that either.
You can play the blame game til the cows come home. Doesn’t change the fact that factions within the Pentagon and covert agencies do things to enrich themselves regardless of objectives.
When will we ever learn?
Never sounds doable.
In the next war
Congress needs to claw back its war powers and there needs to be better oversight. It’s obvious the public was being lied to about Afghanistan progress the past 20 years.
The First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars both ended badly for Great Britain in the nineteenth century and the Soviet- Afghan war disastrously for the Soviet Union in the twentieth century…but for the U.S. in the twenty first century ‘It must be different!’
Why must that be?
The impossibility of winning, and the impossibility of acknowledging we couldn’t win followed the same pattern as Great Britain and the Soviet Union. This can never be acknowledged by current political class critics after twenty years of lies. It can’t be said by the diplomats like Wolfowitz and Rice, and certainly not by the wave of retired generals on news programs who now hold boutique positions at military contract firms, or are principals in their own contract companies, benefiting from keeping the U.S. in Afghanistan.
It has ended like this because it is the only way it could have, and if we don’t see the end as inextricably bound to the last twenty years of lies and systemic failure of the political class, and the military-industrial complex, we are doomed to listen to them again and to repeat the same pattern of failure at the cost of lives, limbs, and wealth.
This will never end so long as the military armaments industry has lobbyists working congress. This is not a party issue either - both sides sadly use the national coffers to enrich themselves.
When making bombs and tanks is the only thing your nation is good at, what do you expect? No, like seriously, what do you expect?
when politicians quit profiting and former generals stop taking defense contracting roles than maybe we would have change
Let's teach real history again.
Probably a better chance of getting a Trump supporter to say I love Joe Biden then that happening unfortunately.
There was no clear plan to "stabilize" Afghanistan, especially after most military resources went to Iraq. Our mission to take over provinces were successful, but as soon as we moved out the enemy moved right back in. Same deal in Iraq. Ramadi is a great example.
Yeah those weapons of mass destruction no one ever found.Cheney who was CEO of Haliburton the defense contractor got the no bid contract on Iraqi oil.The oil revenues would pay for the war was a lie from Rumsfeld
There never was a clear plan. The 4 Presidents lied to themselves and the Pentagon was off in the woods looking for mushrooms. Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires for a reason. No one read Sun Tzu, no one can conquer those mountains. Joe stopped the mistake,
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Remember when he got kicked off ABC for speaking truth?
he's a zionist, islamophobic, Democratic partisan who promulgates disinformation. The entire "war on terror" is a fraud.
@@vivekjain9340 Sez’ you
ua-cam.com/video/i7l8qAxFgFc/v-deo.html
@@vivekjain9340 Something for everybody
As per Winston Churchill:-
"Those who ignore the lessons of history,
are condemned to forever, repeat them".
That was Santayana, not Churchill....
@@Hyperpandas Believe what suits you.
@@meowlarence6972 Has nothing to do with belief. It's a verifiable fact.
@@Hyperpandas My original post was writ as "As per"' it did not attribute the quote to Winnie, he did use it in his writings.I bow to your superior erudition. I have no desire to split hairs with you.
I suddenly recall Tom Lehrer´s "Send the Marines".
Or "National Brotherhood Week" and "Poisoning Pigeons In The Park."
Bill Maher, you Rock dude..
Atleast somebody wants to speal truth in the US.
20 years of war is a dumb thing to do.
We didn't follow our own rules (constitution); we never declared war
Wouldn’t matter either way. Japan is the proper template for how things should have went down. We nuked them twice, deposed their emperor and gave them an American constitution. Now Japan is the most modern country in Asia. No trace of fascism or militarism to be seen. Turns out those nukes ended up doing them some good. That’s the perfect example of how it should be done.
@@mosesking2923 Japan and Germany were homogeneous societies…Afghanistan isn’t.
@@mosesking2923 No trace of fascism to be seen? Wrong. Japan has their hard core "nationalists" who defend their nation's WW2 war crimes against the Allies and Asian women that were forced into sexual slavery they called "Comfort Women".
@@danporath536 you don't think there were opposition parties just before Japanese military under 'rule' of emporer took total control? Please tell me you can see the uni party and big tech forging a consensus as we text?
@@rudyburnias3915 Making all-encompassing comparisons of contemporary events to past events is only useful in some ways. The differences tend to outweigh the similarities. The only way history repeats itself is through human nature.
Not a word about opium fields.
Crops never held any relevancy to the mission.
@@wvusmc then why were troops tasked with guarding the opium poppy fields?
@@JayDeeinFL that's nonsense. We never set Marines up to guard crops, or stayed in an area long enough to do so. Lives aren't being risked for something so irrelevant to the mission on the ground. We'd roll in take care of business then leave. If command had intel that those farmers were supplying Tali then sometimes we'd destroy the crops. Generally we'd leave the fields and the farmers alone. Nobody cared to mess with a civilians way of life if they weren't involved with the enemy.
I can't speak for every unit experience, of course.
@@wvusmc wow, you couldn't be more wrong. "It's part of their culture(opium production.)"
ua-cam.com/video/-1ZPteiIUbg/v-deo.html
@@JayDeeinFL like l said, l can't speak for every unit. If that pog outfit was tasked to help farmers security then that's nothing short of what we called CTN civilian tact and inclusion. I've seen plenty of crops burned but never one guarded.
Have a good one.
Great video!!! I liked the comment about teaching history classes!!!
Still can‘t remember why exactly US military was send to Afghanistan except assuming Bin Laden was hiding there. And then it showed he was not there but in Pakistan.
He was in Afghanistan at the time. We had him cornered in December 2001 at Tora Bora but had orders to stand down. I was there.
@@wvusmc wow why?
@@wvusmc That is supposed to be a legitimate defense of the invasion and occupation? 😂
“He had to pull out.”
Yeah, when we have to pull out of our driveway we don’t close our eyes, floor the gas, and hope for the best.
The issue is Biden’s incompetence. Failing to properly evacuate our troops and letting terrorists get millions of dollars worth of our own equipment. Now he has the blood of 12 men on his hands.....
I remember seeing a female solider on the news just before the country went into Afghanistan. They were in Iraq. The reporter was asking soldiers how they felt about it. The woman solider was pissed off to say the least. She was adamant that we didn’t need to go there.
We went into Afghanistan in 2001 before we went into Iraq in 2003.
If people want to stop it all they have to do is stop signing up for the armed services. Politicians don’t have the balls to reinstate the draft for something like Afghanistan or Iraq. Political suicide.
Are you saying women are smarter than men????
@@kevinc8955 That's another reason they need to keep working people poor. Cause they got rid of the draft.
Lol. Military bitching about their job to reporters. No discipline.
Bill was on point this episode. Thanks, Bill Maher
It's as if we, as a nation, suffer from selective amnesia; I don't know whether to cry or scream.
1080p HoBO ever hear of it?? it's 2021
Great point bill
It’s a ridiculous amount of hubris
Didn't lose the hearts and minds of all the Afghan women who weren't forced to weir burkas, who were allowed educations, etc
But human rights etc was never the reason they were there. It was just an excuse to nationbuild, spend trillions on military contractors, get that Opium rolling again and god knows what else.
@@CptApplestrudl The vested interests and certain national agencies wanted the military spending, the opium rolling, etc., but that's not the reason we were there.
Nationbuilding was always a happy side effect, and became a reason to top bods who forgot or never understood why we were there. Nationbuilding there was/is a fragile thing and near completely dependent on a strong, stable, humanitarian background which did not exist intrinsically in the area in any serious way.
The (THE) reason we were there and should still be there, is to disable future 9/11's; to maintain a small but sufficient force there to deny Al Quaida and ISIS-K, etc (and the Taliban for that matter) access to their terrorist resources, as well as providing us with a strategic base close to any emergent needs.
The 20 year presence has made actually really good humanitarian gains there against phenomenal opposition and inertial resistance from what amounts to multiple antagonistic tribes shoved together under one (corrupt) government. Without long-term care and development, this aspect will always fall apart just like Yugoslavia after Tito's death, or Austria-Hungary.
Basically why we need to be there was not being reminded to the US people, and a whole generation has grown up clueless about it, in their minds equating it with the latter years of Vietnam, of course thus spurring the desire to abandon Afghanistan.
@@CptApplestrudl An excuse to nation-build.....how dare they build nations. I agree that it was mainly for oil and opium but you make a poor argument.
@@fuckamericanidiot Fine then, how about this string of argument then: If we cared about women's rights etc how about we start putting up pressure on our "allies" like Saudi arabia?
I am against ALL wars.
"He said 'Obama', we gotta clap!!!"
Great show Bill. Well done AGAIN.
🥰🥰
Amazing how most media ignored the Afghanistan papers.
Bill Maher has actually been doing a decent job lately. A welcome surprise
Eisenhower warned everyone in the 1950's about this
Bill Maher really knows his history! He's very intelligent! Whether you like him or not, you can't deny that he's very smart!
We do teach History in school, Bill, the kids are too busy playing with their cell phones to pay attention or they're dozing off. Not all of them, but the majority. Take their phones away for 1 hour and it becomes "an assault on their freedom". What a joke school is in America.
And they should be grateful, the US isn't even 250 years old. No Antiquity, no Middle Ages, Renaissance etc... I bet most kids in the EU would like to only study 250 years worth of history.
@@nerdanalog1707 wait- you study only Usa's history at school?
Children in other countries have phones too. Doesn't explain why American history curriculum is laughable if not outright dangerous.
@@remembertoloveyourselftoda4015I left the US at 12 yrs old, but at least up to that point, yes only US American history was studied. I went back to the US for my first college year, and all students had the choice between World History and US History class. There weren't 10 students in the World History class. When I asked around, students told me they had only studied US History and it would be easier to get good grades rather than learn World History (which was basically western history from the Enlightenment up to contemporary history, not that far away in time).
Finally, to give you an idea of the level of how history can be taught in the US, when I left at the 6th grade (beginning of Middle School), the test questions were given the day before the test, had to be memorised and answered correctly the following day with a MCQ.
Leaving the US for the EU, I found out how low the standards of public education in the US are and had to catch up to a lot.
It seems logic that living in a specific country, one would mainly learn the history of said country. Though, I do wonder if there shouldn't be an exception when the country has existed less than 250 years, no matter how many wars it has participated in.
@@MrAronymous Other countries don't tolerate the BS that American public schools do. I went to private and public schools (in Oregon) where class clowns and disruptive kids are NOT tolerated in private schools. We continue to graduate public high school kids who can barely read and write. There's no need for kids to have cell phones while in class, they can be checked in at the door, like a coat or hat in a nightclub. Our history books are white-washed, always have been.
Vietnam didn't militarize our Police Departments and staff them with PTSD timebombs. Cheney/Rumsfeld was worse.
Everybody looking for a good laugh should Czech out
Cupcakke remixes.
Please have Brene Brown on your panel, she'd very good in discussing why we as a society numb our vulnerability and polarize and commit to bad habits.
Dear Bill, It's not generational memory loss. WAR IS PROFITABLE.
You went to Afghanistan to finish a pipeline for Halliburton....
Teach history , philosophy and more importantly ethics with a big emphasis on the value of HONESTY !
We should teach reading ,writing ,history ,math, science, languages , critical thinking...
Bush should've known about Vietnam. So did Rumsfeld..powell. the whole administration.
They knew how to unite the people around a bad idea
Do you have any idea how much money the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will have cost the US when it's all over?
Multiple trillions...and at home politicians tell you how you can never afford social security, welfare, free healthcare etc.
"How are you gonna pay for it?"
I never thought that Iraq would work out relatively fine and Afghanistan would not. You did well in the unjust war, but not in the just one.
"These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime.”
President George W. Bush explaining the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan
This was accomplished by 2003, if not before.
How did Iraq work out relatively fine???
If you ask people from Iraq, I guess they would say the war not only killed many of their familymembers, but also destroyed the society. However, as always, a small group of people are happy and rich due to the war.
@@ellengran6814 - Having lived in the Middle East, I've spoken to some people from Iraq. Most of those I spoke to concluded that, on the whole, they were glad of the American invasion and the deposing of Saddam Hussein. They believe that their nation is in a better place than before the US invasion. So the world isn't as black and white as you seem to suggest.
@@wiseonwords In the 1980s , Iraq was a middle-income and rapidly developing country. Today more then 4 million iraqis are in need of humanitarian help, millions have water-supple difficulties and the healthcare system still suffers compared to before the war. However, I agree, it all depends on who you ask.
Start busting the MIC.
George Carlin would be disappointed in some Comics today….he would be very sad and pissed.
As individuals, none of us matter, no matter who you are. Society is a tricky thing however...
okay, who gets the strategic minerals now?
I don't think it even matters at this point, who gets what. I agree with leaving that place, mostly because I spent a lot of time in that hell hole, starting in the early 2002, and I can easily say the minerals are not worth the cost.
Every single state and defense department official from all four presidencies that are responsible for keeping us in this war shouldn't just be fired. They should be put in jail for the rest of their lives! Americans should be outraged now just as they were about Vietnam!
I've attempted to delete this and can't. My feelings about this I'm putting on readers is about as bad as the doctor did to me. I just get tired of the same thing happing. I watched the fall of Saigon on tv.
Vietnam wasn't taught at my highschool.
Don’t forget the opioid farm that we control there as well. A lot of shady government/special interest stuff went on there
It wasn't about war, it was about economics!
I like how Americans call wars - "unwinnable". There are words for not winning -> losing, a loss, lost, defeated, a defeat, beaten...
We do teach history history in school, however, so much of the year is committed to standardized testing that most classes do not get to Vietnam and beyond.
Nobody is forgetting anything. It's all done for profit gains. They know what they're doing, in the long run, making money. They just don't know exactly how they're gonna get there.
It's almost like nobody in power has a grasp on reality and they're making all of this shit as they go along. Colour me not surprised.
Heck I knew , that’s why I didn’t sign up for the military.
The difference between Europe after WWII and Afghanistan is that Europe was mostly a white Christian continent. So they shared similar values to the US, and wanted to get all that back. Afghanistan is not only a different religion and culture, but they had no history of democracy or civil order to fall back on. No institutional memory. We would've needed to stay in Afghanistan another 20 years to get 2 full generations of people who grew up under more orderly and prosperous circumstances.
It's amazing to listen to this from Bill Maher then listen to his recent take on how Americans shouldn't be at all upset about Afghanistan and should shut up because we have it better than them. His take that we are too 'woke' and that's the issue. Talk about repeating mistakes, he's already moved on to 'Don't criticize America'.
It doesn’t seem to matter, people involved made out like bandits and there is nothing we will do about it, just like Vietnam. And I’m sure the next time it happens, it will be the same thing again. And all we do, is talk and complain about it. But it doesn’t seem to change anything. Politicians and all involved need to be accountable some how.
Who is getting the money for the opium, that is your problem child,.
see ua-cam.com/video/i7l8qAxFgFc/v-deo.html
@@vivekjain9340 Everyone knows about the CIA, but there is way more money involved that is going somewhere. my theory is the crowns. When Juan Carlos came back to power, the cocaine money went to Spain. Britain has always profited off opium. I would say the CIA uses 5 to 10 % of the opium profits. There is billions. And there is a level above the CIA for sure geopolitically speaking. Popes and Crowns
Bill, what would have been an appropriate exit plan? Or would it always have been chaotic, dangerous and sad?
Too bad we can’t hold politicians who lied responsible their living a good life
Blame a boomer audience... rrrrrright
Sometimes funny is wrong. I will always remember "Socrates is like a beautiful bird whose tweets mean nothing at all" as sort-of one of the shortest-sighted jokes in all history.
Thanks for your contribution to the Democratic party Bill. You've helped create the new America.
Instead of saying we don’t teach history. You should say people should remember history because by God we teach it.
the big question is not why are we in Afghanistan. That was the question 19 years ago. The BIG question is how we train soldiers for 20 years and these same soldiers are defeated in less than 72 hours.
I will never forget the picture of the last helicopter taking off from the roof of the US Embassy in Siagon. Brace yourself America, the repeat is coming to your TV in a few days.
You cut out the part seconds earlier which was " the Taliban says that women will have all rights within the limits of Islam, which is a great way of saying, none !" Maher went on to say he never understood why there was not a greater outcry against this. perhaps you can explain since you edited this out.
What was the house vote on going to war? (Asking rhetorically)
For the 20 years some1 in America has controlled the poppy/heroin trade of Afghanistan..the Taliban had ended it.. that angle has to be considered with the real reasons we invaded, then stayed..along with this being a military complex cash cow
There's no easy way there's no easy way to get out of War
USA just got stronger not weaker. That’s what happens when you end a futile and costly exercise.
Don’t forget that this War made a lot of rich men, richer.
LMAO! Bill talking about sometimes you have to be a badass. And which branch of the military did you serve in Billy.🤔
Each nation teaches mythology well before it allows history to be discussed in college level seminars.
Is mythology not a thing in American curriculum? Cause if so, that's a damn shame. Also, explains a lot.
@@Illlium mythology as the nation's history is taught in every nation because evil is what others do. The indigenous tribes in North America were frequently resolve to murder Caucasians. The manifest destiny people only massacred the tribes because the tribes were so evil.
@@btbingo The advantage of real mythologies is that they don't whitewash history, but good to know American mythology is as messed up as the country itself.
I think there may be something to the Pat Tillman story.
There were definitely nefarious reasons for certain people to insist on those wars.
If you’ve never been in the military like me who briefed the CDR and his staff with daily briefings (this is before the fall of the Berlin Wall), then you’ll never comprehend this, but every Master Sergeant/Colonel/General I spoke to all said the same thing to me (I’m paraphrasing)……”war is about money being made for the US, not necessarily winning it. Winning a war is the ultimate prize.” Aside from WWII, I’d say we’ve pretty much sucked at winning wars!
"Im not against all wars I'm against dumb wars." And what just war do you mean bill? Vietnam, korea, spanish american, the first gulf war, libya, ww1?
*With The Kinds Of Money We've Spent In Wars, We Could Guarantee Senior Citizens $5000 Monthly In Retirement.That Money Would Solve At Lot Of Their Problems. Prescription Drugs Etcetera*
4,000 military personnel in Bahrain
28,000 military personnel in South Korea
53,000 military personnel in Japan
64,000 military personnel in Europe
2,500 military personnel in Afghanistan protecting 19,000,000 women and young girls
Ike left office in 1961 warning the US of the overwhelming power the US Military Complex was nurturing in the US Congress to get more and more appropriated tax dollars flowing into the coffers of R&D firms and weapons manufactures. Today we have private firms doing almost all of the support services for troops as contractors making huge profits for work we used to use Army personnel for. The idea that for-profit companies will do better is ridiculous. Companies work to cut costs in every way possible to maximize their profit. That cost-cutting often leads to lower standards because the cheapest suppliers are hardly ever the highest quality.
This perpetual war has always been about meta data collection. Everything leads to meta data collection. Eventually, we'll all have a social credit score.
Yes, besides feeding incredible amounts of $$ to the MIC, don't forget about our oil trapped under their sand.
I can’t believe these guys are that naive. They’re not.
The reality though, is that now Vietnam is a pretty stable and friendly country where Americans and other Westerners are welcome and don't have to worry too much about getting beheaded for jaywalking. Hard to see Afghanistan in the same way down the road. Yes, it sucks.
Armies need experience.
It’s not forgetting it’s remembering we can make tones of money…
We went there for the same reason the Ruskies went there. Because it is a perfect strategic position to keep a thumb over the entire Middle East.
Or would be, if anyone could ever actually control it.
They be liars. We be stupid fools.
Politically, I disagree with about 97% of what Maher believes. But I still look forward to watching his show. Why? Because the man says what he actually thinks. And he has INTEGRITY! Something the professional liars in Washington DC got rid of a long time ago.
Feed people US money and ask them to stop wanting more? Insanity!